Buy a jar of culture jam

The effect culture jamming has on Western culture can, to me at least, only be viewed as positive. Each day we are bombarded with advertisements. Billboards while driving, posters on street poles, television ads and now it’s even standard to see product placement in our favourite TV shows and movies. Remember Tom Hanks’ film Castaway? That was one 2 and a bit hour ad for FedEx. A story about a dedicated employee doing everything he can to survive and in the end delivering the package to the customer. We have come to accept this and move along with daily life, mostly ignoring or not noticing the ever present hold that the power brokers have on our landscape.

I am not saying that we are passive to the effects of mainstream media. We interpret their messages and make assumptions of our own. But, there are those who take a more active stance and are far more critical of the powerbrokers than most. These people fight for moral virtues held by the community that the mainstream seems to flout. They are called ‘culture jammers’. One of the most prominent culture jammers is Kalle Lasn, the founder of Adbusters Magazine. He scribed a manifesto (found at bottom of post) outlining the goal of the jammers. The anti-capitalist and anti-consumerism movement gives the public a much needed break from the corporations that rule our lives.

This legitimate form of non-violent protest has proved effective in changing organisational policy. Nike is my favourite example. After it was released that Nike was using child labour to make their products, the culture jammers took it on and made a stand. The use of sweatshop labour does not fit in well with Western values. Nike received, and still is today, much criticism for their work practices. Billboards were changed and advertisements were converted to subvertisements. The culture jammers retain the original image and then transform it to something less propagandistic and more damning.

After all the criticism the resulting PR campaign began to emphasise the efforts they are putting into changing their work practices, such as fair pay, fair hours etc. This was a great success for the jammers. Though they were not fully responsible for the policy change they did, however, provide platforms in which to inform the consumer about the origins of their favourite sneaker.

What culture jamming does is makes us stop for a second and understand that the powerbrokers only tell you the things you want to hear. You won’t hear them talk about the cheap 10 year old child in Vietnam making your shoe. Or the genetically modified, tortured chicken used by the Colonel at KFC. No! These little facts are conveniently left out when they plug the product to you, everywhere you go. Culture jammers are essential to critically comment on consumer society. We should not condemn them, but instead praise them for taking on Goliath.

Culture Jammers Manifesto

We will take on the
archetypal mind polluters
and beat them at their
own game.

We will uncool their
billion-dollar brands
with uncommercials
on TV, subvertisements
in magazines and anti-ads
right next to theirs in
the urban landscape.

We will seize control of
the roles and functions
that corporations play
in our lives and set new
agendas in their industries.

We will jam the pop-culture
marketeers and bring their
image factory to a sudden,
shuddering halt.

On the rubble of the old
culture, we will build a new
one with a non-commercial
heart and soul.

A blog concerning blogs.

The blogging phenomenon has given the ability for anyone to voice their opinions and view to a massive audience. Anyone with access to the internet is able to express themselves at an unprecedented level. Never, in the history of civilisation can one access the countless blogs available on the internet. But why have they become so important within our society? What is it that is so appealing to the masses? Freedom of expression is so highly regarded within the Western world and a blog is the most accessible platform in which a user can inform the reader through an alternative information source, away from that of mainstream control.

The rise of blogculture has been quite fast. Ten years ago the average person would most likely not know of what a blog is. Today, however the world has changed dramatically. Terrorism, war and politics are recurring themes in many blogs. They have become the perfect platform to access reliable and important information that the mainstream media may wish to sugar coat or completely disregard. The information contained in blogs may be that of personal opinion, but its alternative perspective can change you point of view on any topic.

If you did a blog search on the present Iraq war you would get an infinite amount of pages to choose from. After just doing a quick search then I found two blogs that contained information unlikely to find its way to the pages of the Herald Sun. The first blog told the touching personal story of two men’s 3 month attempt to travel from Iraq to Sweden to find a safe home. Only speaking Arabic, the two men travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam. They briefly considered the possibility of travelling to Sweden through Indonesia, but heard many Iraq refugees that took that path simply vanished. Demoralised and broke they were forced back to war-torn Iraq at a Vietnamese airport. The second blog discussed a study that an estimated 1 million Iraqis have died since the US-led invasion in 2003.

To me I feel that blogging has become an essential aspect in gaining reliable information. To rely on the sensationalistic, ethno-centric and bias mainstream media is unsettling. Blogs are not only used by extremists, radicals and conservatives, but a diverse range of people from the global community. Anybody can turn their whisper into a roar, and in exceptional circumstances can gain celebrity (PerezHilton).